Samsung stock falls as Apple seeks wider ban

Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s largest mobile-phone manufacturer, fell in Seoul trading as Apple Inc sought a ban on US sales of new Galaxy smartphones, deepening their global patent disputes.

Samsung dropped 1.2 percent to 1,218,000 won at the close. The stock tumbled 7.5 percent on Aug. 27, the first day of trading after a US jury verdict found the South Korean company copied the iPhone.

Apple accused Samsung of flooding the market with “copycat products” and added the Galaxy S III smartphone to a list of models that the California-based company says infringe its patents. The device is the latest version in Samsung’s best-selling smartphone series and was not yet on sale in the US when Apple, which won US$1.05 billion in damages in August, filed its first lawsuit last year.

The Galaxy S III went on sale in the US in June.

“Apple’s move may not have an immediate impact on sales, but the image for the new products is getting hurt,” Ahn Seong-ho, a Seoul-based analyst at Hanwha Securities Co, said by telephone yesterday. “The news headlines are all implying that while Apple is leading innovations, Samsung is just copying.”

Apple’s revised complaint filed on Aug. 31 in federal court in San Jose, California, builds on the jury verdict reached a week earlier in the same court. In the filing, the company sought a finding that the Suwon, South Korea-based competitor’s products infringe its patents and an order barring Samsung from further infringement, plus monetary damages.

Samsung will take the necessary legal measures to keep its products available in the US, the South Korean company said in a statement on Saturday. Apple is seeking to limit consumer choice, Samsung said.

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